Omar Khadr still a pariah in his home country, according to new poll

I'm not in the least surprised by a poll that suggests Canadians don't want Omar Khadr back.

As the Toronto Sun reports, 60 per cent of those surveyed earlier this month said they strongly oppose or somewhat oppose Khadr's transfer to a Canadian prison from his cage at Guantanamo Bay.

The large poll of 2,099 people, conducted Aug. 10-12 by Abacus Data for the Sun News Network, found opposition to Khadr's repatriation strongest in Alberta, at 69 per cent, and his hope province of Ontario, 65 per cent. Quebec respondents were more ambivalent, with 51 per cent opposing his return.

Opposition cuts somewhat across party lines, with 79 per cent respondents who voted Conservative in the last election opposing Khadr's return, along with 52 per cent of NDP supporters. Only 42 per cent of Liberals don't want him back, compared with 39 per cent who do.

But here's the thing. Khadr is a Canadian, born in Toronto. His family, who are also treated as pariahs, lives in Scarborough. He has a right to return, even if his public image hovers somewhere near Karla Homolka territory.

He did spend much of his young life living in Pakistan and Afghanistan, immersed in the culture of al Qaeda. His father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was a key deputy and fundraiser for Osama Bin Laden before being killed by Pakistani forces in 2004.

[ Related: U.S. to hand over Omar Khadr Guantanamo Bay videos to Canada ]

Omar Khadr was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 after a firefight in which the 15-year-old was badly wounded. He's been in custody ever since, mostly at Guantanamo Bay, accused of tossing a grenade that killed U.S. special forces medic Chris Speer.

After a highly controversial military tribunal proceeding, Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to several charges, including murder, in return for an eight-year sentence and an agreement that he could serve most of it in Canada.

But Khadr, now 26, remains at Guantanamo, a tiny spit of Cuba controlled by the U.S. military, while the Conservative government slowly processes his transfer request.

The U.S. government dearly wants to be rid of him — it's trying to close Guantanamo — and groups like Amnesty International and the Canadian Bar Association are pressuring Ottawa to move, the Sun noted. Many believe he he's a child soldier who had little choice but to fight.

His supporters say there is little risk.

"Don't judge him based on what happened when he was 13- to 15-years old," Khadr's court-appointed lawyer U.S. Army Col. Jon Jackson told Sun News Network during a recent visit to Ottawa. "Judge him on the actions he's taken since then.

"I think what you'll find is he's a person of a good heart ... He's a good kid who deserves a chance at a very productive life. I think Canadians are going to see him as someone who is not a threat."

In a column in the Hamilton Spectator this week, writer Abubakar Kasim accused the foot-draggers of shameful hypocrisy.

"They only sing the slogans of human rights, protection of underaged children, and the rights of Canadians abroad when it suits them," Kasim writes. "They fail to live up to their own words when the person in question belongs to different ethnic or religious background."

Yet the prospect of Khadr's return, and eventual release from prison apparently rankles some Canadians enough to protest publicly.

"He is an Islamic terrorist, and he could be walking our streets," Scarborough resident Shobie Kapoor, who also started an anti-Khadr online petition, told the Sun during a demonstration last month. "I'm scared. I can't keep quiet any more. I love my neighbourhood and I love Canada."

[ Related: Keep Omar Khadr out of Canada, says online petition ]

The Sun noted Khadr has served enough of his sentence that he could already be eligible for parole under Canadian law, something that also concerned poll respondents. Across Canada, 71 per cent opposed his parole, regardless of party.

The poll gave no margin of error because respondents for the online survey were drawn from a panel of more than 150,000 people.